Michael Farris Smith

A pretty good read but not exactly riveting. I like the storyline. Would definitely like to see this picked up as a movie. I feel like we darn near experienced this in 2017 with all the rains that came with Hurricane Harvey and so many homes flooded out, first in Houston. Then when it made landfall a second time, hundreds and hundreds of homes in Jefferson and Orange County, Texas, flooded out. Bayous and creeks were pushed past their holding point and caused catastrophic damage. Dams were nearly flowing and to their busting points. They were slowly opened to release more water, which caused even more flooding to homes that had never flooded before. The only difference from this novel is the fact that we were able to come back home and rebuild because, well, the waters eventually did subside.… (mere)

This is the first time that I have read any of Michael Farris Smith’s writing and I was quite impressed by how his writing pulled me in. I read this book over the course of a single day. When I did put it down, I quickly found myself coming back to it. This isn’t a feel-good story. It is a story of desperation filled with flawed characters that came to life through the writing. I am so glad that I decided to give this book a try.

Jessie finds herself on the run with her toddler son, Jace. She decides to go home to her father, Wade, whom she hasn’t seen since she left when she ran off with Jace’s father as a teen. Jessie knows that people are after Holt and running was the only option but she is worried about what might have happened to him. There aren’t a lot of options in the hurricane-ravaged lands of southern Mississippi where the land is too wet to grow crops anymore. They will find themselves in more danger before things are over.

The descriptions in this book were incredibly vivid. I felt Jessie’s worry when she was on the run with her son and I loved seeing Wade encounter the grandchild that he didn’t know existed. All of the characters in this story were flawed but they were doing the best that they could, with a few setbacks. They obviously cared about each other even though they didn’t always know how to show it.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought that this book was not only incredibly well-written but also entertaining and thought-provoking. I would not hesitate to read more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Little, Brown and Company.… (mere)